The present invention relates to a color image pickup apparatus for generating color television signals.
In a color television (TV) camera or like color TV signal generating apparatus, it sometimes occurs that the color video signal reproduces pictures in which the saturation of a particular primary color is insufficient. Various proposals have heretofore been made to solve such a problem. In a three-tube type color TV camera, for example, an attempt has been made to overcome shortage developed in the saturation of red by adding a difference {(red signal)-(green signal)} to a red signal R employing a predetermined polarity. In a single tube type color TV camera, it has been contemplated to process three primary color signals output from the camera so as to produce signal which varies the saturation of a particular color.
However, the first mentioned attempt associated with a three-tube TV camera is undesirable because it changes the saturation of magenta in addition to that of desired red, that is, a change in the saturation of one particular color is inevitably accompanied by a change in the saturation of another and unexpected color. The second-mentioned attempt, on the other hand, is not fully acceptable because the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of a signal generated by demodulating a multiplex color signal and processing it by a matrix circuit or the like is unavoidably deteriorated.